Cesár Losada Santamaría, a 54-year-old Basque, has owned, wholly or with partners, a dozen hotels at a time for more than two decades. His business journey was that of a sort of King Midas who invested in this sector, buying four and five star establishments, to reopen them or boost his activity. However, he ended up as a (convicted) crook and restless squatter who has just been forcibly evicted from a huge apartment in Valdebebas. He owes more than 40,000 euros to the owner, who had to leave Spain for the United Arab Emirates with his family to be able to earn a living.
This Monday, César, who claimed to earn 100,000 euros gross per month, had to leave his 200 square meter home located in one of the most exclusive new districts of the capital in the hands of the municipal police. He had 15 minutes to collect the essentials, and that’s what he did: “He took the bottles of beer, whiskey and vodka. But he left the clothes,” his latest victim explains to ABC , the Venezuelan Nelson González, owner of the property.
He also “forgot” a notebook, a sort of diary in which we can read: “I now have a depressive life”. […]and it can’t be cured with pills […]. There are two negative things for me at the moment: being alone and doing nothing. It is part of his story, in capital letters and in blue and red ink, depending on the concept he wishes to highlight.
A sample of his analytical mind, without which he could not have built an empire since he entered the family hotel business at the age of 27 and began to create his own companies in La Rioja and Zaragoza. In particular, in 2017 it took over the Conquistador hotel in the Aragonese capital, which had been closed for three years. He did it with the company Alameda Capital, for 3.3 million euros, adding the value of the acquisition and renovation.
Losada’s diary and the inquiokupa
In 2010 he had already made his second leap to Madrid, with the acquisition, through his company Losan Hotels World, of the Husa Paseo del Arte and the Holiday Inn, among others. Investments that always ended badly. The first was Losada’s return to Spain after selling the Serrano Hotel in 1999. In the middle of all this, with a group of savings banks with which he shared Losan (he owned 17%, being the main shareholder ), it was introduced with the brands NH, Hotusa, Husa and the German Steigenberg, in cities such as Paris, Berlin, London, Brussels and New York. An empire valued years ago at 1.2 billion euros.
With a CV like that, how did he end up with one hand in the back and another in front, presumably? Worse still, on November 8, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León ratified the five-year prison sentence for the aggravated fraud committed during the acquisition of another Quindós hotel in León from a well-off family. known to this city.
Compensation of 2 million
Likewise, he was ordered to pay a fine of 16 months, at the rate of 6 euros per day, and compensation of 2.1 million euros to the plaintiffs plus interest for non-payment, in addition to another of 60,000 euros for moral damage. .to the selling family. Thus, César Losada went from being the golden man of the hotel sector to being judicially evicted from a rented apartment and having one foot in prison.
Relatives of the couple concerned in front of the block
In February 2023, the couple Nelson González and Otty Díaz, who had rented their apartment on Manuel Fraga Iribarne Avenue, were contacted by Losada through a real estate portal. There are 200 meters in a duplex with extraordinary qualities. The tycoon’s payroll, or so he says, was very large and they signed a temporary contract until August. Once completed, the couple decided to renew it for another year. But he stopped paying the rent. We reproduce here one of the conversations between the defaulter and his victim, apologizing:
—César: I have a payroll of 100,000 euros per month, which leaves me with 46,000 cash. What’s happening is they have a Treasury embargo on all my accounts. That’s what killed me. The lawyers are working on the problem. The Treasury asked me for a guarantee of 1.5 million.
—Nelson: You’ve already told me this story a hundred times, Caesar. You don’t even believe it yourself.
—C: You wouldn’t sell me the apartment for a million euros, would you?
—N: I’m not doing business with you anymore after what you did. Not crazy. What I want is for you to leave as quickly as possible.
—C: Okay, okay, okay…
—N: Good vibes: how can we get you to leave?
—C: I’m looking for complete apartments. What kills me is when they go online [en referencia a que su nombre aparece en buscadores por muchos asuntos de impago y similares].
—N: But it’s not from now. It’s not my fault. Check your name on the Internet, there are even complaints in England. You have been experiencing scam problems for a long time, for years.
—C: I have a debt to the Treasury of 4 million euros.
—N: I did you a favor because you had your paycheck and your tax return. I praised you in good faith. People like you can’t be trusted. I have two young children, my mother is over 80, so are my in-laws. We have nowhere to live because of you, we live crammed into one room. You have no heart. We live five people in the same room. Find your life. I have to raise my family, I’m not a millionaire like you. You should be ashamed. I have to borrow money from my brother to eat.
In the midst of this disorder, Nelson discovered that César had entered his house in Valdebebas just one day after leaving another in which he also had a considerable fortune, more than 30,000 euros. In January 2022, this other scammer signed the rental contract with Losada for a value of 2,600 euros per month. The defaulter paid one month’s deposit and two months’ guarantee. And nothing more, because he stopped paying the rent. Six months later he was reported and in February 2023 he left the house, after negotiating with an “eviction” company. He left damage worth 8,000 euros.
And he went to Nelson’s apartment. The owners took the case to court, in a long and tortuous path to assert their rights: the payment of 2,100 euros of monthly rent plus services, “which were very high”, underlines Nelson González. What if his accounts had been seized, and if he was hospitalized… Excuse after excuse. He and his wife also hired an “eviction” company, but Losada “managed to drag out the process.” In June, the Court of First Instance Number 7 of Madrid issued the launching order. “He did not respond to notifications and continued to delay the matter,” said his victim. Until September 18, the courts set the expulsion for November 18.
“Finally, this Monday, the Municipal Police had to open the door with a locksmith, because he did not want to come out. The officers took him out of there. The apartment is dirty, but since he didn’t expect to be evicted that day, everything took him by surprise, there was no damage. He owes us 40,000 euros, both for the 15 months of non-payment of rent and for the services,” insists González, during a telephone conversation from the United Arab Emirates with ABC.
Attack on Nelson’s wife
Before, on December 20, 2023 and after the “visit” of the “squatters”, Otty, Nelson’s wife, went to the apartment with her husband, her children, her parents and her mother-in-law “to convince this person to pay or hand over the keys. It was half past six in the afternoon and, while they were waiting in a nearby park, they saw Fernanda, Caesar’s wife, arrive, to whom he asked: “When are you going to pay me?” to which the interviewee replied: “See you in court,” according to the police complaint to which this newspaper had access. “My kids are going to miss Christmas because of you,” Otty reprimanded her, to which Fernanda replied, “Get your fucking kids out of here!” The 6-year-old girl has an anxiety attack and the defaulter insists, defiantly: “Are you going to hit me?” “No, I’m way above you, don’t mess with my kids,” his victim said. Then the squatter grabbed her by the hair, took her to the elevator and began strangling her, until her family was able to separate them, the complaint states. She was treated by Samur and presented a report of injuries due to the attack.
Now it’s all behind us, with the five-star hotel defaulter and fraudster’s special farewell in the form of almost a message in a bottle: “Make a daily plan for activities outside the home.” I now have a depressive life, dominated by monotony. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Monday, Tuesday or the weekend, and this cannot be cured with pills, but by changing your lifestyle little by little. And I’m going to do it the week of September 16 in advance. Knowing that there are two negative things for me right now: being alone and doing nothing. Because that’s how I’m leaving…
